Looking Out For Her, Always
by Bellatrix wannabe 89
Summary: Many men have made that promise to Olivia Benson. To look out for her, to protect her, to be there for her. When one man breaks that promise in the worst way, leaving her and her son with bruises in the aftermath, it's up to Tucker to prove to her that some men keep their promises. Always. Tuckson, two shot.
1. Chapter 1

We own no one but our own people

 **A/N cowritten by the oh so epically amazing Dee (SVUBahDumTiss on here, LiveSimplyDee in twitter.)**

Tucker took a drink of the bourbon placed in front of him as he tried to ignore the sounds of the TV turned on above the bar playing some basketball game.

God he hated TVs in bars. If he owned a bar it would have been void of any jukebox, TV… nothing but the patrons drinking whatever woes they had away and the bartender helping them.

Unfortunately this wasn't only not his bar but it was a cop bar. It hadn't mattered that he retired from IAB and gone back to the more honorable field of hostage negotiation, New Yorks finest still saw him only as a rat, something to ignore until someone got drunk enough to say something to him.

But he didn't mind. He liked being alone while he drank if he was being honest. At least that's what he told himself as he sat on the barstool without someone sitting beside him like… like she used to.

She didn't mind the angry stares thrown his way when they went to cop bars, she didn't mind the drunks slurred insults for some perceived slight. She sat proudly beside him, talking to him, joking with him, giving him permission to take her hand or place a hand on her thigh or wrap his arm around her waist when he walked her out…

Tucker was so lost in his memories that he didn't notice the two uniformed officers come in and sit beside him leaving only a chair between him and the two gentlemen, ignoring the blue eyed captain as they did so. They ordered their drinks and as they waited for the bartender to deliver them they began talking rather jubilantly.

"I can't believe she had it in her…" one of the men, an older grizzled officer in his fifties with a faded scar on his cheek told his drinking buddy, a fairly young black officer with a thick mustache, with a certain awe. "You wanna talk about one hard sum' bitch…"

"I heard he needed twelve stitches," the mustached cop added. "But she didn't fare much better. She damn near busted his head wide open, he pretty much turned her whole face black and blue..."

"Still wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating crackers though," the scarred cop said with a chuckle as he took a drink of his beer.

Beside them Tucker, who was half listening to the tale, rolled his eyes at the crude comment.

The mustached cop laughed, nodding. "I definitely feel you there. I still haven't heard what happened to start all this though, I thought those two were together?"

"Oh they were, for a while actually, something like four months. Benson even allowed to let him come visit her in the station a couple of times too."

All of a sudden the conversation that before was mostly background noise to the seasoned veteran, now required his full attention and required his full attention QUICK.

He whipped his chair towards the pair, his blue eyes wide.

"Benson?" said Tucker gaining their attention. "Olivia Benson, Manhattan SVU? That's the woman you're talking about?"

While the scarred cop looked at him like he had kicked his dog the young officer, who didn't know Tucker had been IAB, nodded before he took a swig.

"Yeah. She worked this guy over good but don't get me wrong she took a fair pounding as well."

Tucker moved quickly to get out his wallet and throw a ten spot on the bar to pay for his drink before he turned back to the storytellers.

"What was the guys name? The officer who hit her, what's his name?"

The young cop opened his mouth to answer but the scarred cop interrupted with a voice like sharp ice. "Why? You gonna go rat him out? You don't even know what started the damn fight."

Tuckers hand curled into a fist but he forced himself not to react how he so desperately wanted to. He wanted to scream that if he hit her he deserved to be 'ratted out' but instead he just channeled the anger into the coldness that the officers he interrogated had grown so used to, letting him know he was not in any capacity playing around.

"Give me his name," he told them in the no nonsense tone he had perfected during his long career at IAB, "and give it to me NOW."

The scarred patrolman glared at him for a moment before he muttered, "Joey Panzetti from the 82nd."

Without another word Tucker raced out of the bar and hailed the first cab he saw, not worrying about the costs it would cost to get from the cop bar to her apartment that was almost ten miles away. It would have been far cheaper to take the subway but the taxi was faster and he needed to get to her right now.

The whole ride he thought about the words the men had spoken in the bar. Someone hit her. Someone actually hit Olivia Benson. Some thug had dared to lay his disgusting hands on her…

Every mile the driver covered his fury grew. That woman had been through more Hells than anyone he had ever met, and someone thought they had the right to even think about harming her, someone who had trusted enough to not only be in a relationship with but had felt secure enough in them to introduce him to her squad…

Tucker wanted to kill him.

When he arrived at the familiar building his rage was at a boiling point and it only seemed to cultivate the closer he got to her as he took the far too slow elevator to her floor. Finally he was at her door and he saw nothing but red in front of him. He raised his fist and knocked on the door, his hands trembling as his anger seemed to overtake him.

When the door opened a moment later though and he saw her face, any flames fueling his anger was doused in an icy water.

The bruises weren't as bad as the officers at the bar had said it was, but it still made him speechless when he looked at her.

One of her beautiful brown eyes were a solid black and blue, her jaw had a solid fist shaped bruise on it as well, her lip was split open and he could still see the dried blood over the cut, and there was a bruise on her arm that showed Tucker someone had grabbed her arm.

"What'd he do to you?" asked Tucker softly, still unable to tear his eyes from the bruises.

She shook her head. "Nothing. I'm fine."

"I know you are. You always are…"

"Really, he barely touched me. I'm okay, Ed, I promise."

Realizing he wasn't going away anytime soon, nor could she blame him, she moved out of the way so he could come in and shut the door behind him.

This was the first time they had seen one another since he told her he understood why she was leaving him, a lie if he had ever told one, but it wasn't awkward to be around her. Truth be told walking into her apartment had felt like the most normal thing he had done in almost six months…

Everything looked the same since he had last been here, the only thing really changing was there were now older photos of the boy he had grown to love along with a new photo of her and some good looking Italian guy Tucker assumed was the reason for all this on her mantle. There were two wine glasses on the table, both of them empty along with a near empty bottle of wine showing evidence she had gone on a date with this Panzetti guy.

When Olivia noticed he was staring at the photo of her and her most recent fling she walked over to the picture frame and, not even bothering to take the photo out of the ornate frame, threw it in her trash.

"I take it this made it through the grapevine already," she asked as she went back to her previous spot on the couch where she picked up a well used ice pack and put it against her eye."

"Heard it from two cops in a bar." Tucker walked over and sat beside her on the couch, looking down and seeing her hands bloody and bruised, both defensive and offensive wounds and markings on her hands. "They said you worked him over pretty well."

"That part won't matter… by the morning everyone in the NYPD is gonna know not only the CO of sex crimes and domestic violence got beat by her boyfriend but that the neighbor next door had to rescue her." She reached forward and took a drink of the wine sitting in front of her. "They'll think I'm pathetic."

"No they won't," Tucker assured her. "Those cops in the bar, you know what they talked about mostly? How well you handled yourself against him. That's all anyone is gonna talk about, I promise."

She didn't need to be looking at him for Tucker to see the pain behind the small smile. "It's a nice thought but I've been in this job for a long time and I know people better than that."

The blue eyed captain nodded, unable to look at her as he forced the question he still wasn't sure he wanted the answer to past his lips but he had to ask.

"Did… did he-... Liv-."

"He didn't rape me," she told him rather bluntly without emotions. "And he didn't try either."

"No I- I know that… I mean, did-..." He closed his eyes, licking his suddenly dry lips, speaking so low he could barely hear himself speak. "Was…did- did he ever hit you before?"

He didn't want to know the answer. It was destroying his very soul to see the bruises and marks on her body caused not by some perpetrator but someone she trusted to take care of her.

While she never told him out loud Tucker suspected for a long time, even back when he was merely Olivia's frenemy, that she liked to be taken cared of by the men in her life, to a certain extent.

It was why she had always gone after the macho alpha guys. Stabler, Cassidy, even her partner Amaro was a bit of a hot head who would have protected her.

Then there was Tucker himself; who, while he was soft spoken and shy in regards to the romantic part of the relationship, she knew without a doubt

that she would be protected around her, he would have defended her against anyone or anything who tried to hurt her. He would do what a man was supposed to do and would never falter.

He suspected that she wanted the same from Panzetti, and he made her the same promise the rest of the men in her life promised her; that he would take care of her, and he had betrayed that promise in the worst someone could betray a promise like that.

Olivia finally turned to look at him, something along the lines of anger and confusion wrapped up in clear as crystal signs that he had offended her by simply thinking about the question much less having the gall to ask it.

"Do you really think I would tolerate something like that?" She asked almost in a harsh whisper. "That I would stay with him and forgive ANYONE for putting his hands on me, much less Noah?"

A whole new rage overtook him and a flash of red blinded him.

Olivia's anger at the previous question fell and was replaced by a slight fear as she realized what she had revealed about the attack that she had wanted to keep between her and the cops who, being in Panzettis precinct, let him go with a warning, slipped out .

"He hit Noah?"

Olivia almost jumped at the icy coldness in his tone. She was almost afraid to tell him the truth but nevertheless she nodded.

"Noah was acting rowdy all day," she explained. "He was running around, being loud, not really listening to me, just having one of those days that all kids have…"

Tucker forced himself to listen to the story, keeping his blinding rage chained enough so he could follow the explanation.

He knew all too well about Noah's 'bad days' which like Olivia said came no more and no less than any other child his age. He was no more violent, no more rambunctious than any other four year old hopped up on the seemingly unending energy young children possessed.

When it happened when Tucker was around he usually stayed out of it and let Olivia handle her son until he felt he was in their lives enough where he could discipline the four year old. But he followed Olivia's lead, he did what she felt was appropriate for her son and she decided when he acted up; talking to him and trying to direct his energy into something more positive then running around running into things and yelling loudly.

It may not have been how he thought a child should be disciplined, nor was it how he and his brothers and sisters were either, but Noah was Olivia's son which mean she made the rules and Tucker followed them.

"Joey and I, we were throwing a dinner party this weekend so he brought over some of his mothers wine glasses. He said she brought them over from Italy but anyone could tell they were bought right down the street. Anyway he brought them over and I- I mean I told him to put the damn thing up when he got here!" she explained fiercely as if Tucker had already blamed Noah. "But instead he takes them all out of the bag, unwraps them, and just leaves them on the coffee table. I was in the kitchen getting a bottle of wine and Noah runs into the living room, bumps the table and one of the glasses fall and breaks."

Tears filled her eyes at the memory that she would rather forget, trying to quickly wipe the tears before Tucker could see the tiny offending drops of moisture. "He- he grabbed him by the arm, like he was a little rag doll" she speaks while puffing out air before continuing, "and he hit him, hard, on his little bottom. It wasn't a spanking, Tucker, he did more than spank my son. He left marks on him. He has a bruise in the shape of his hand on his little arm and welps on his-," she wanted to continue but the cry came out first. Neither moved, but she finally continued. "Ed, he tried to beat my son for breaking a $10 wine glass. And Noah, Noah screamed for me and I just stood there, I couldn't even fathom what the hell happened and he did it again and he raised his hand back to hit him again and that's when I realized what was happening."

She took another moment to console herself. "I pushed him away and I tried to grab Noah, and he got mad and came at me and… ten minutes later the cops showed up after my neighbors called but they were friends with Joey and it all got dismissed as a domestic disturbance and they encouraged us to 'work it out'. I told him to take his wine glasses and leave or else I'd kill him, he left and two hours later here you are…"

By the end of her tale, Tucker was now visibly shaken, not in fear, but the wrath had consumed him wholly and unapologetically.

He got up from the couch and made his way to the door without looking at her. He didn't want her to see the pure unadulterated hate storming in his icy blue eyes.

"Ed?" She called to him as she got off the couch. "Ed, don't," she begged. "Please don't, I have it handled."

Her voice was background noise to him. The only thing he could hear was the terrified pained screams the child who would have been his son and that drowned out almost everything else.

"I'll be back," he told her, shocking his own self with how angry his voice was.

"Ed don't!" she tried one last time. "It's over!"

"For you maybe."

Without another word he wrenched open the door and slammed it shut behind him.

Olivia hesitated to run after him as his footsteps faded away. She wants to stop him. She knew she SHOULD stop him. But, surprising even herself, a small barely there smile shone through.

He was going to avenge her, he was going to defend her son.

Ed Jonathon Tucker was going to be one of the only men in her life who made the promise to look out for her and take care of her and would actually keep it.

Please Review!


	2. Chapter 2

**We own no one but our own people**

 **A/N wow! We seriously did not expect this much love for this twoshot. Neither of us; like at most we thought we'd get about 10 reviews spaced out over about a day and some scragglers but wow! Honestly we just wanted to thank you so much for the review love and we hope we meet your expectations with this chapter as well.**

 **Love, Leslie & Dee **

Ed Tucker was not a man to get angry very easily nor very often. He had learned to control his anger growing up with his father who merely had to make it seem like he was unbuckling his belt in order to get his 5 children to stop yelling after a while.

After that he learned it from his Drill Sergeant in the Army whose entire job was to make the Captain remain calm in the most tense situations he would ever be in, and finally years and years of not only dealing with angry cops, but men and women who had decided violence against others was the only way they could get what they wanted and it was his job to talk them down.

When he did seem to lose his temper in interrogations it was all an act to get them to confess. He may have been yelling and shouting at the cop across from him but he was in complete control of himself. Even when Don Cragen had grabbed him and slammed him against the wall that one time he lied to his detectives, for good reasons of course, Tucker had remained calm throughout even while he was facing down the furious CO.

He had lost his temper once recently when he found out his cousin had been responsible for the murder of a young girl because Tucker had name dropped Karen in front of him.

If Olivia hadn't of stopped him, there was a good chance Tucker would have spilt blood not only in a church but from a man of the cloth at that.

Looking back now, he almost wanted to laugh. That wasn't anger. That barely registered as anger compared to what he was feeling right this moment as he walked down the street towards the address that one of his friends still at IAB had texted him, a storm raging in his eyes so dangerous that even those on the sidewalk knew to side step him.

He wanted to make him feel the same pain he put Olivia and Noah through. He wanted to shatter every bone in his body so he could never hit another woman or beat another child again.

He wanted him dead.

The closer he got to the address, the more gasoline was added to the flames. He kept hearing Noah's terrified screams and the sound of his fist hitting Olivia's flesh. He couldn't get the image out of his mind of Noah hiding behind the couch screaming and sobbing for his mother as that little boy watched Panzetti attack Olivia while she fought to keep the madman away from her son.

Joey Panzetti wasn't going to walk away from this… Not if Tucker could help it.

As he turned on the block where Panzetti lived, he now saw nothing but a ferocious shade of red. As fate would have it, just as he reached the apartment he saw the Italian walk out the front door and turn towards him.

The cops at the bar weren't kidding when they said that Olivia had given just as good as she got.

There was a large recently stitched up scar that JUST missed his eye, courtesy of her dagger sharp nails he guessed, a good sized bruise on his cheek, a large cut overtop an ugly looking bruise above his other eye, and another bloodied stitched up cut on his head that looked as if one of those $10 wine glasses had found the side of his head.

Panzetti saw Tucker and offered a smile that almost made him cringe from the pain the movement caused, either not noticing the fury radiating off of every inch of him or thinking that it was directed at someone other than him.

"Hey, Tucker," Panzetti greeted warmly as he walked up the to the blue eyed man, having met the Captain once when he was a responding officer in a hostage situation. "How you doing?"

But Panzetti never got to find out the answer to that question because Tucker grabbed him by the front of the jacket and slammed him up against the side of his building, shaking so hard he almost had a hard time holding onto the man.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Panzetti shouted as he tried to push the solidly build Hostage Negotiation away but he may as well have tried to move a tank.

"Tucker, what-?!"

Before he could finish though Tucker's fist collided hard with his already bruised face and sending him to the dirty ground beneath him.

Panzetti scrambled to his feet as quick as his injuries would allow and the moment he was on his feet again he tried to swing at the blue eyed man who easily dodged it and countered with a hard punch to the ribs, dropping him like a stone.

"Get up," Tucker snarled as he circled the man as he laid on the ground struggling to catch a breath. "Get up and fight, coward."

Panzetti didn't respond with anything but a harsh cough as he held what he was sure was now bruised ribs.

"Get up!" he roared again.

When he made no move to listen to his order, Tucker grabbed him by the back of the shirt and stood him up as easily as he was a rag doll and slammed him face first into the brick wall. Before he wrapped his arm around his throat.

"I won't kick a man while he's down," the blue eyed man growled. "Because I'm a fucking man, Panzetti. You know what that means?"

"Please!" he gasped, trying and failing almost embarrassingly to push himself away from the wall. "

"Than means you don't hit women and you sure as HELL don't hit a fucking child!"

Tucker grabbed him by the arm as hard as he could, making sure it would leave a mark, and with a grunt threw him into several trash cans several feet down the ally with a loud crash.

"What's wrong, Panzetti?" he asked the man as he stormed over to where he had tossed him. "You can hit a woman just fine, you can hit a four year old no problem but you can't hit a man?"

Without waiting for a response Tucker picked him up again and slammed him up against the wall, grabbing a hold of his collar and leans in, getting within an inch of his even more bloodied and bruised face.

"If you ever, and I mean EVER, lay a hand on a woman or child... Olivia Benson and her son for that matter, I will personally make it happen to where you no longer not only have a job, but your life will be a living hell. Day in and day out you won't see it coming."

Tucker straightened out his stance and his hand curled into a fist that he brought back, preparing to throw another, even more deadlier punch but then a voice breaks through the buzzing in his head that had been prevalent throughout the fight.

Olivia Bensons voice…

Tucker, enough. I'm fine.

She wouldn't have wanted him dead… As bad as he hurt her, as bad as he hurt her son, she wouldn't have wanted a man killed in their names. He wouldn't hurt her like that.

So instead he merely hit him in the stomach, watched as he slumped down the wall and without another word turned and made his way back to Olivia's.

…

SLAM!

Olivia jumped as her door flew open, hitting the opposite wall with a loud bang.

"Jesus,Ed!" she hissed. "You scared me half to death!"

"Sorry," he breathed as he walked in, shutting the door behind him much more quietly then he had opened it. "I just… I'm sorry."

Olivia looked at him for a moment, swallowing hard as she looked at him. She recognized that look all too well. It was the same look she had after she had pulled the gun on Cassidy during her trial and she saw her reflection in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. His adrenaline was still surging through him as much as it had been when he had done whatever it was.

She got off the sofa and carefully made her way over to him, her hands raised to let him know she wasn't going to hurt him.

"Ed?" When he didn't respond to her she grabbed a hold of his now bruised and bloodied hands and turned him towards her. He looked so lost. "Ed, it's alright, it's okay… We're okay, me and Noah, we're safe now," she added softly, knowing that's what he needed to hear.

Tucker swallowed hard and she watched as his blue eyes softened as he looked at her.

"Liv?" His voice was so scratchy, like he was waking up from a nightmare and he wasn't quite sure what was real and what was a dream yet.

"I'm right here." She reached up and gently stroked his face and he covered her hand with his as if to make sure she was really there, unable to turn away from the icy blue of his eyes. "I'm okay."

Tucker took a deep breath, still not willing to let go of her hand, opening his mouth to speak when a small scared voice drew both of their attention away from each others.

"Mommy?" said Noah, his voice trembling slightly as he stood in his doorway. "Door?"

Olivia wiped away the sudden tears that had sprang to her eyes. "Baby, it was just Mommys friend being a little loud. Go back to sleep."

Noah shook his head. "Scared," he answered, breaking both adults hearts in the process.

She turned back towards Tucker who nodded, letting go of his hand so that she could go to her little boy.

"Come here, my love," said Olivia as she picked him up and hugged him. Noah wrapped his arms around her neck and buried his head in her neck.

She brought him over to Tucker who forced a smile that appeared more as a grimace than anything else.

"Hi, Noah," he greeted the small boy.

He turned to look at the blue eyed man but said nothing in response and just clung to Olivia tighter who kissed the side of his temple.

"Sweetie, you remember Ed right?" Olivia asked. Noah nodded, still not moving away from Olivia's grasp. "He just came by to check on Mommy… and you."

Noah looked at Ed for a moment before he pointed to his arm where a very large hand shaped bruise that took up half of his forearm.

It took a lot to make Ed Tucker want to shed a tear but seeing that bruise on that beautiful little boy…

He never had as much trouble swallowing the lump in his throat as he did right then.

"Owie," Noah told him. Before Tucker could respond he pointed to Olivia's bruised face the same as he had his arm. "Mommy got owie too."

"Yeah, I- I know, Buddy. But no ones ever gonna give you or Mommy an owie again, okay. I promise."

Noah lifted his bruised arm up to Olivia. "I okay?"

Olivia kissed the bruise and Noah laid his head on her chest, cuddling up as close as possible to her.

"Yeah, my love… you're gonna be okay."

She turned almost apologetically towards Tucker. "I'm sorry he's being so clingy tonight," she said but making no move to discourage said clinginess.

"Don't apologize. I think he's earned some cuddle time with mom," said Tucker.

He went to rub the small child's back but Noah pushed his hand away almost fearfully.

"No," Noah told him, clinging tighter to Olivia.

Both adults hearts shattered at what had just happened. He had never not allowed Tucker to touch him before.

Noah was Tucker's buddy, he was his little guy…

He was going to be his son.

Tears rushed to Olivia's eyes as the implications of what had transcribed earlier in the evening hit her.

"Baby, its just Ed," she reminded him. "You know him."

"No," Noah said again, this time with a more fearful whine.

"it's fine, Liv. He'll let me around him when he starts to trust again. Unfortunately you and I both know this is normal behavior."

Tucker lifted his hand to rub Olivia's shoulder, his fingers brushing against the fabric of her shirt.

"NO!" Noah screamed and, with as much force as his little four year old body could muster, tried to push Tucker's hand off his mother who took his hand away from his exs shoulder as if he had been burned.

"No Mommy owie!" Noah screamed as he broke out into sobs, clinging to her harder than he ever had before almost hurting her. "No Mommy owie!"

Olivia closed her eyes as tears slipped past her lids and down her face as she stroked Noah's hair with a trembling hand.

"It's okay, my love," she reassured him through her tears, hardly able to hear her son so upset. "Sweetie, it's okay. Mommy's fine, I promise." When Noah refused to heed her words, instead continuing to cry and cling to her, Olivia took a deep breath to try to settle her own nerves before she tried again.

"Noah, baby, you have to calm down. We're fine. Mommy is fine. Look," she smiles to try and ease his worry, while also cuddling him as close to her as possible.

The small boy calmed slightly but still clung to her as tight as he was able to.

"How about I tuck you in again and I read you a story okay? That sound good, sweet boy?"

While he didn't seem overly excited at the prospect of an extra story he didn't protest either. She turned towards Tucker and mouthed an apology m who gave her a soft smile as a means to tell her it was okay before she and Noah disappeared back into his bedroom.

When they were out of eyeshot Tucker poured himself a rather large glass of bourbon, remembering where she kept everything as easy in his own home, and made his way over to her couch where he slowly sipped the burning liquid, enjoying the warmth that filled his chest.

As he sat there the memories of the night replayed over and over. Slowly the adrenaline was fading away, leaving the more rational parts of his brain cursing him for what he did.

 _You're going to be fired. You can't go after someone like that. You're a former IAB captain, you know better._

But the less logical part, the part that had roared triumphantly when he saw Panzetti on the ground in pain, the part that had actually in the midst of the beating made him smile when he cries out in pain when Tucker grabbed a hold of his arm so tight he could have broken it if he wanted, was singing a whole other tune.

 _You avenged her. You avenged her son. He was a child abuser and a woman beater whose own precinct let him get away with this, he deserved it._

Tucker had been her knight in shining armor, he had rode into battle to defend her and he came out triumphant.

' _Who cares if you were her hero, you should have just arrested him instead of beating him.'_

 _'The charges wouldn't have stuck. This was the only way for her and Noah to get justice.'_

 _'You don't know that. You might lose your job, freedom, your pension.'_

"She's worth it," he muttered out loud to himself, ending the internal discussion.

"Who is?"

Tucker turned and saw Olivia gently shutting Noah's door behind him. She came over and sat beside him, not sitting far away as he thought she would. It was almost as if they were back together enjoying a relaxing night together after a long day at work.

"Is Noah asleep?" Tucker asked hoping to ignore the question she had just asked.

Olivia nodded. "He is but I don't know how long. The thought of that little boy having nightmares because of what happened…"

"You'll be here to help him if he does," Tucker assured her.

"I know but I never wanted him to go through anything like this. I just... I don't want him to remember this. Ed, you should have heard his little cry and the look on his face." She tried to not let her emotions take over.

Tucker reached over and gently rubbed her shoulder. "Hey, hey, he's little. He probably won't remember any of this."

Rather Olivia heard him or not he wasn't sure.

"I should have killed him the second I saw him hit my baby but I just sat there. I froze and I- I just watched, I couldn't-..."

With no warning Olivia reached over and hugged him around the neck, burying her head in his neck.

"Stay," she whisper against his neck.

"Olivia..."

"I, I don't wanna be alone tonight," she told him as her tears fell down her face and landed on the collar of his shirt.

Tucker froze, a million thoughts racing through his already cluttered mind.

He didn't expect this when he came over here, nor had he planned on using what he did for her for any sort of 'thank you'. He wanted to defend her because she deserved someone to protect her. She deserved someone who would fight for her and for her son. She deserved someone who would look out for her.

Always.

Slowly Tucker wrapped his arms around her as well, praying that she couldn't hear his heart pounding through his chest.

"Liv," he began, making his voice as steady and as comforting as he could. "I-... I don't think that's a good idea."

She lifted her head off his chest and as he looked down at her he saw her.

He saw the tiredness in her face, he saw the wrinkles embedded in her skin that revealed her true age, the styles and products washed out of her uncombed hair, he saw the pain that came from Panzetti and Lewis and Harris and a hundred other men inflicted on her, he saw the curves that her expensive well fit clothes hid…

He truly saw her.

But most of all he saw her brown eyes, free of any liner or shadow or mascara… and he saw they were full of tears; the things that she would let no one else see but had allowed Tucker the honor of seeing.

"Ed, please," she begged softly as more tears fell.

"We broke up, Olivia," he reminded her but at the same time he wasn't willing to take his arms from around her. "I don't-."

"I know. I know we did but… last year was just…" Olivia closed her eyes as she struggled to find the words to say. "Dodds death… I became this whole other person I don't even recognize anymore, and I lost sight of what really mattered to me."

Tucker swallowed hard, hardly able to believe the words he was hearing.

"You…" He cleared his threat to stabilize his shaking voice. "What about Noah? He has to be your priority," Tucker repeated the same words he told her what felt like a lifetime ago.

"He is. He's always going to be. No matter who comes into my life, that's never going to change, but… I want what I had before I messed up, I want you and I want Noah and I wanna be a family again. You're the only one who's ever looked out for us."

"Always," Tucker told her, echoing his long standing promise.

A small smile broke through her tear stained face. "Always," she repeated.

Olivia cuddled closer to him and pulled over the blanket thrown over the back of the couch over them and, with a kiss on top of her head, the two soon fell asleep.

…

Tucker awoke a few hours later, Olivia still wrapped in his arms and a blanket overtop the two. He kissed the top of her head before he untangled himself from her body and made his way over to the kitchen.

He turned back around and smiled at the sight before him. Olivia sleeping on the couch with her hair spread over her face, Noah's toys strewn across the room, him cooking the three of them breakfast...

It was as if he never left.

He got out the eggs from the fridge along with all the things needed to make an omelet and had just begun eggs into a bowl and started to whip them when he heard the door to Noah's nursery open and the young boy walked out holding his stuffed shark in one hand and letting his blanket drag behind him in the other.

Tucker smiled sweetly at the young boy. "Hey, Noah," he greeted him. "You want an omelet for breakfast?"

He nodded as he climbed into his chair, rubbing the sleep from his eye.

"Just cheese please," Noah reminded him.

"Of course just cheese. You think I forgot how you took your breakfast?" Tucker grinned as he saw the faintest hint of a smile on Noah's face. "You wanna help me break the eggs?" he asked, knowing it was probably one of the favorite things the young boy liked to do.

Another nod and he was off the chair and making his way towards the counter.

"Alright, little guy, here we go."

Tucker reached down to pick up Noah but the second his hands touched him he jumped back, looking at the Captain with wide frightened eyes.

"No owie!" he yelled half terrified.

Tucker's face fell as he looked down at the young boy, his heart breaking into a million pieces for what he had caused.

"Noah?" Olivia called out as she shot up off the couch. "Sweetie, you alright?"

Without another word Noah sprinted past Tucker and launched himself onto the couch, clinging to Olivia as tight as he could.

"No owie!" he told her as he buried his face in his neck.

He swallowed hard as he followed Noah to the couch and sat down beside him, taking care not to touch the young boy. Olivia looked over at Tucker, her eyes screaming an apology on behalf of her son.

Tucker waved it off before he turned towards Noah who wouldn't look at him and still had his head buried in his mothers shoulder.

"Noah?" He spoke so soft if Olivia hadn't seen his lips move she wouldn't have been sure it was him speaking. "Noah, honey can you look at me?"

When he didn't comply with Tucker's request Olivia gently stroked her sons back. "It's okay, my love, she told him. "He's not going to hurt you, I promise. Can you just look at him really quick?"

There was a long moment of quiet and stillness before finally Noah turned to look at Tucker, his arms still securely around Olivia's neck.

"Last night was pretty scary, wasn't it?" he began to which Noah slowly nodded in agreement. "And I bet you're really scared that someone's gonna hurt you or hurt your mommy again."

He hugged Olivia tighter and nodded again. Tucker scooted a few inches closer keeping his hands in plain view so he wouldn't be spooked.

"Noah, listen to me… No ones ever gonna hurt you like that again. Ever. No ones gonna hurt your mother like that either, I promise."

Noah glanced up at Olivia who nodded. "He's right, sweetie. The person that hurt us? He's never gonna hurt us or scare us ever again." She looked over to Tucker, smiling softly at him. "Ed made sure of that…"

Without warning she reached over and took his hand. Noah whined and made to push the two hands apart but Olivia held him back.

"It's fine, my love," she assured him. "He isn't hurting me. He would NEVER hurt either of us."

Noah calmed down slightly but he was still unwilling to let go from around her neck.

Tucker took his hand from Olivia's and offered it to Noah who eyed it like it was a snake. "It's alright, Noah. I promise…"

After a moment of staring at his hand, Noah slowly reached out and took his hand.

"See?" said Tucker. "Is this hurting you?"

He thought for a second before he shook his head. Tucker looked directly into the young boys eyes, trying to convey every ounce of truth he possessed into his next few words. "That's because I'd never hurt you, Noah, and I'd never hurt your mom, and NO ONE is going to hurt you ever again. I know you were scared last night, and I know you got hurt, but Noah I promise, okay I PROMISE… you will never have to go through that again. Because I'm going to be right here to protect you. Always."

There was a long moment of silence where Noah and Tucker looked at one another, and the blue eyed man could practically hear the gears turning in the young boys head before he kept from Olivia's lap into Tucker's, throwing his arms around him in the tightest hug he had ever given him, even before he and Olivia broke up.

Tears rushed to Tucker's eyes as he hugged the four year old back, gently stroking his hair as he told him over and over he would look out for him, for his mother, for their perfect little family.

And he would.

Always.

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